What culture/country in the diaspora has the most African cultural retention?

[intruder]

5. Names. Many names like Malik, Fatima, Omar, etc. came from West Africa.

Plenty of Haitians named Fatima, Alpha, Mustapha, Abdoul and many others african/arabic names. You think that's something that's unique to African Americans

6. Language. Many of the words in Gullah have been traced right back to Mende.
7. The Dozens. Joking relationship between friends and close family.

On and on and on. The funniest part is that people think that African Americans have retained the least amount of culture, but when African Americans sit down and think about it they might realize that they may have retained nearly the most. The reason that they probably retained so much is because it was so few of them actually brought to the USA and most of them came near the same time and from related tribes (Mende, Mandingos, Susu, other Mande tribes, as well as Kongo, Angolan and Fulani).

What culture/country in the diaspora has the most African cultural retention?

While Haitian kreyol is french-based, many of the words we use have no french or spanish or english roots at all. Common words like moun (people), kounye-a (right now), poko (yet) etc etc etc

 

[intruder]

@Akan

Go to any club in any African country in west Africa. Probably where the age range is between 35 and up and have the DJ play "myan myan" or any song by this man below and you'll see something. Mofos going crazy. Women grabbing random men to dance singing the lyrics.

ANy Haitian breh who grew up in Haiti in the 80s or 90s will probably remember this cat and even getting their ass whooped by their parents for repeating his lyrics (this is grown-folks music. Little did we know as kids is that every line had a some sexual meaning)
My african friends always told me he was real popular in Africa. Then i got to see it for myself when i was in Ivory Coast 2 weeks ago. shyt was crazy. I miss that mofo

Haitian Artist = Coupé Cloué, The name means "Cut and hammer"

R.I.P da gawd

 

[Nemesis]

i went to Cuba last year and some black cubans spoke a couple of words of Yoruba when i told them I was Nigerian .... I know they speak yoruba in parts of Brazil

 

[StretfordRed]

Black Brazil looks amazing

 

[im_sleep]

Breh... have you seen Caribbean dishes? Go to any Caribbean restaurant and ask them for something WITHOUT rice and see how they look at you
And you know Americans (black and white) dont eat rice as much as Caribbean people do. For ever 1/2 cup of rice the average american consumes the average caribbean person eats about 10 cups. Let me help you out a bit with the other foods

Ivorian Calalou

Jamaican Calalou

Haitian Lalo

African Fufu/Placali

Haitian Tomtom

I can go on and on when it comes to foods.

And you know damn well Americans (black and white) just recently started eating plantains, yuca and avocados. WHen i first moved to the U.S. i was amazed how avocados used to sit and rot off trees in South Florida.

I could care less about the cultural measuring shyt but rice is consumed very much by AA’s across the board, even more so when you factor in rice growing regions in the US.

So what are you basing your conclusions off of? Cause surely it isn’t from growing up in an AA household.


And we don’t eat plaintains, yuca, etc. because they don’t grow in the vast majority of the continental US and don’t grow ANYWHERE where AA culture developed. We’re one of a couple diasporan groups who were enslaved in a humid subtropical climate as opposed to a tropical climate like the majority of the diaspora.

 

[intruder]

I could care less about the cultural measuring shyt but rice is consumed very much by AA’s across the board, even more so when you factor in rice growing regions in the US.

So what are you basing your conclusions off of? Cause surely it isn’t from growing up in an AA household.


And we don’t eat plaintains, yuca, etc. because they don’t grow in the vast majority of the continental US and don’t grow ANYWHERE where AA culture developed. We’re one of a couple diasporan groups who were enslaved in a humid subtropical climate as opposed to a tropical climate like the majority of the diaspora.

I'm basing it on the fact that when i see Americans eat rice it's usually just a little bit like 1/2 a cup on the plate whereas typical caribbean plate be 3/4 full of rice .
Again, im not saying African Americans dont eat rice. Just saying ya'll dont eat rice to the same degree we do. You go to a caribbean household and they serve you any meal (lunch or dinner) it's pretty much guaranteed it comes with rice. That's not really the case with Americans. American, in that aspect, tend to eat healthier when you think if the downside to eating a lot of rice (high in sugar)

Notice this plate which is a typical togo plate from a haitian restaurant. More than half the shyt is RICE

Hell i could argue that Caribbean and Central american people eat way more rice than asians, even

 

[Samori Toure]

I could care less about the cultural measuring shyt but rice is consumed very much by AA’s across the board, even more so when you factor in rice growing regions in the US.

So what are you basing your conclusions off of? Cause surely it isn’t from growing up in an AA household.


And we don’t eat plaintains, yuca, etc. because they don’t grow in the vast majority of the continental US and don’t grow ANYWHERE where AA culture developed. We’re one of a couple diasporan groups who were enslaved in a humid subtropical climate as opposed to a tropical climate like the majority of the diaspora.

Not only that, but the slaves brought foods to the USA from places like Rice Coast, Congo and Angola. Stuff like greens, okra, watermelon, black eyed peas, cantelopes and other melons, on and on and on. Those things are staples of African American cuisine.
5 African Foods You Thought Were American

Not only that, but a lot of words in English that people think are English words are actually African words. Words like jamboree, banana, jumbo, juke, bogus, banjo, on and on and on.

 

[get these nets]

I could care less about the cultural measuring shyt but rice is consumed very much by AA’s across the board, even more so when you factor in rice growing regions in the US.

So what are you basing your conclusions off of? Cause surely it isn’t from growing up in an AA household.


And we don’t eat plaintains, yuca, etc. because they don’t grow in the vast majority of the continental US and don’t grow ANYWHERE where AA culture developed. We’re one of a couple diasporan groups who were enslaved in a humid subtropical climate as opposed to a tropical climate like the majority of the diaspora.

I'm basing it on the fact that when i see Americans eat rice it's usually just a little bit like 1/2 a cup on the plate whereas typical caribbean plate be 3/4 full of rice .
Again, im not saying African Americans dont eat rice. Just saying ya'll dont eat rice to the same degree we do. You go to a caribbean household and they serve you any meal (lunch or dinner) it's pretty much guaranteed it comes with rice. That's not really the case with Americans. American, in that aspect, tend to eat healthier when you think if the downside to eating a lot of rice (high in sugar)

Notice this plate which is a typical togo plate from a haitian restaurant. More than half the shyt is RICE

Hell i could argue that Caribbean and Central american people eat way more rice than asians, even

There was a brief segment comparing and contrasting diets(and history) between diasporan Africans in the U.S. and the Caribbean

cued up already




roughly 2 minutes

EXCELLENT documentary, by the way

 

[Samori Toure]

There was a brief segment comparing and contrasting diets(and history) between diasporan Africans in the U.S. and the Caribbean

cued up already




roughly 2 minutes

EXCELLENT documentary, by the way

Soul food is not the cuisine that African Americans ate. That is some shyt that was created about 150-200 years ago when the Whites took African American women and made them cooks in kitchens. Fried chicken, bar-b-que, macaroni and cheese, chitilings, pork chops and stuff like that was from White people. Black people actually learned how to cook that stuff from Whites and natives. In fact frying food is not even an African tradition. That is something that came from native people in the USA as a way to preserve food. Same thing with corn. Corn was introduced by native people.

African Americans slaves ate mostly stews made of fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables. It should have been common knowledge that most African American slaves didn't eat pork, because the ones from the Sahel were Muslim. I am totally stunned at the lack of knowledge of some of you guys on the basic stuff that African Americans brought to the USA.

 

[im_sleep]

I'm basing it on the fact that when i see Americans eat rice it's usually just a little bit like 1/2 a cup on the plate whereas typical caribbean plate be 3/4 full of rice .
Again, im not saying African Americans dont eat rice. Just saying ya'll dont eat rice to the same degree we do. You go to a caribbean household and they serve you any meal (lunch or dinner) it's pretty much guaranteed it comes with rice. That's not really the case with Americans. American, in that aspect, tend to eat healthier when you think if the downside to eating a lot of rice (high in sugar)
hell i could argue that Caribbean and Central american people eat way more rice than asians, even

Ehhh I’d say that definitely varies regionally.

 

[im_sleep]

There was a brief segment comparing and contrasting diets(and history) between diasporan Africans in the U.S. and the Caribbean

cued up already




roughly 2 minutes

EXCELLENT documentary, by the way

Not feeling the overall premise of that clip. I’ll explain a lil later when I have some time...

 

[get these nets]

Soul food is not the cuisine that African Americans ate. That is some shyt that was created about 150-200 years ago when the Whites took African American women and made them cooks in kitchens. Fried chicken, bar-b-que, macaroni and cheese, chitilings, pork chops and stuff like that was from White people. Black people actually learned how to cook that stuff from Whites and natives. In fact frying food is not even an African tradition. That is something that came from native people in the USA as a way to preserve food. Same thing with corn. Corn was introduced by native people.

African Americans slaves ate mostly stews made of fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables. It should have been common knowledge that most African American slaves didn't eat pork, because the ones from the Sahel were Muslim. I am totally stunned at the lack of knowledge of some of you guys on the basic stuff that African Americans brought to the USA.

What is the point of your comment to whom is it directed towards?




===================
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America

In this thread, started by me, and featuring one of the speakers in the brief segment above, you are in agreement with her.

Who are "some of you guys that lack knowledge on basic stuff AA brought to the USA"?

 

[im_sleep]

There was a brief segment comparing and contrasting diets(and history) between diasporan Africans in the U.S. and the Caribbean

cued up already




roughly 2 minutes

EXCELLENT documentary, by the way

Ok starting off...

1. The mention of Caribbean slaves being allowed to grow provisions compared to American ones doesn’t make sense to me when there’s plenty of evidence that African Americans in many cases were allowed the same, the same with having Sunday’s off, not to mention the overall diversity of Soul Food. This especially doesn’t hold up when it’s pretty well known that Caribbean slavery was more labor intensive than much of American slavery. This is another common case of people overstating the paternalistic nature of American slavery and applying it as a catch-all thing to every aspect of it. More myth making, less fact based opinion, which unfortunately is still too common when people speak on AA culture.


2. Ol boy mentioning the Caribbean connection New Orleans has in comparison to the rest of the South like, “Mississippi and Virginia”, and using beans as an example of that is hilariously false and short sighted as hell. Hell grouping Mississippi(which is right next to Louisiana) with Virginia is dumb to begin with.

The big difference with bean dishes are Red Beans, and that’s a Gulf thing, not exclusively a New Orleans thing. However AA’s in EVERY region of the south eat Black eyed peas, Butter Beans, Purple Hull Peas, Pinto Beans.

 

[get these nets]

Ok starting off...

1. The mention of Caribbean slaves being allowed to grow provisions compared to American ones doesn’t make sense to me when there’s plenty of evidence that African Americans in many cases were allowed the same, the same with having Sunday’s off, not to mention the overall diversity of Soul Food. This especially doesn’t hold up when it’s pretty well known that Caribbean slavery was more labor intensive than much of American slavery. This is another common case of people overstating the paternalistic nature of American slavery and applying it as a catch-all thing to every aspect of it. More myth making, less fact based opinion, which unfortunately is still too common when people speak on AA culture.


2. Ol boy mentioning the Caribbean connection New Orleans has in comparison to the rest of the South like, “Mississippi and Virginia”, and using beans as an example of that is hilariously false and short sighted as hell. Hell grouping Mississippi(which is right next to Louisiana) with Virginia is dumb to begin with.

The big difference with bean dishes are Red Beans, and that’s a Gulf thing, not exclusively a New Orleans thing. However AA’s in EVERY region of the south eat Black eyed peas, Butter Beans, Purple Hull Peas, Pinto Beans.

Mrs. Harris and the woman who is a curator for museum in New Orleans are the only ones who could be clasified as historians in that small segment. I hope the subtitles didn't block their listed occupations which flashed on the screen

1. completely agree,he's not a historian and he's wrong here... though I assume it was edited and he was comparing specific islands to certain american colonies

2. disagree......(modern day)Louisiana was French territory until the Haitian revolution...and some parts of the area....I imagine, is similiar to the climate of the islands....I know they grew sugar cane in LA for example.....so him saying that the diets of people in New Orleans specifically would be similiar to the islands sounds right.....Africans taken from those same islands (and regions of Africa), growing the same crops,eating fish/shrimp/conch, in the same general area...under the same euros(french and spanish) are going to have same foods

MS was next to LA, but were separate countries and slave systems before the louisiana purchase....they share the gulf coast, but he's not completely wrong

 

[im_sleep]

Soul food is not the cuisine that African Americans ate. That is some shyt that was created about 150-200 years ago when the Whites took African American women and made them cooks in kitchens. Fried chicken, bar-b-que, macaroni and cheese, chitilings, pork chops and stuff like that was from White people. Black people actually learned how to cook that stuff from Whites and natives. In fact frying food is not even an African tradition. That is something that came from native people in the USA as a way to preserve food. Same thing with corn. Corn was introduced by native people.

African Americans slaves ate mostly stews made of fish, chicken, fruits and vegetables. It should have been common knowledge that most African American slaves didn't eat pork, because the ones from the Sahel were Muslim. I am totally stunned at the lack of knowledge of some of you guys on the basic stuff that African Americans brought to the USA.

I partially disagree.

BBQ most definitely didn’t come from white folks, look at the history of most white owned BBQ joints in the South and there’s always a story of some old Black man teaching them. Kind of like old country artists always have that same kind of story. Not to mention there’s nothing comparable I’ve seen within European cuisine, especially not that shyt from the British isles. Whats more likely in my opinion is the theories that it either came from Native American influence, or came by way of Caribbean slaves who were brought in to the Carolinas during the early years of the colony which explains the similarities you see between bbq and jerk.

I also had saved a youtube clip of a woman in a Gambian village frying chicken just like we do, but it’s got shut down due to copyright reasons.